Fortunately, we didn’t have to rescue any whales entangled in debris. However, we found ourselves surrounded by humpbacks, breaching, slapping the water with pectoral fins (pictured above), and singing as they glided underneath us, big as buses.

The sanctuary is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), dedicated to help protect Hawaii’s humpback whales. As many as 10,000 humpback whales travel from Alaska to Hawaii every year.

But till then, here’s my video of a humpback whale breaching in the blue waters of the Pacific, between Lanai and Molokai. (In Hawaii, it's illegal to approach a humpback whale closer than 100 yards by sea. The photo and video may look close, but I've got a camera with a great zoom function).